Otto Krayer

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The Otto Krayer House in Freiburg im Breisgau with the Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology and the Institute for Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry

Otto Hermann Krayer (born October 22, 1899 in Köndringen , Baden , † March 18, 1982 in Tucson , Arizona ) was a German-American doctor , pharmacologist and university professor.

He was the only German scientist who, for moral reasons, refused to take over the chair of a colleague who had been dismissed by the National Socialist government for racist reasons, and who took this position publicly and aggressively.

Life

Otto Krayer's parents were the innkeeper of the Köndringer "Rebstock" and council clerk Hermann Krayer and his wife Frieda geb. Wolfsperger. The school time in Emmendingen and the Freiburg Rotteck-Gymnasium was interrupted by the First World War. Krayer was wounded on the Western Front . From 1919 to 1924 he studied medicine in Freiburg , Munich and Berlin . In 1925 he was an intern with Paul Trendelenburg at the Pharmacological Institute of the University of Freiburg. In 1926 he was with the work "The pharmacological properties of pure Apokodeins" to Dr. med. doctorate , then he became a research assistant at the University of Freiburg.

In 1927 he moved with Trendelenburg to the Pharmacological Institute of the University of Berlin, where he completed his habilitation in 1929 . From 1930 to 1932 he was managing director of the Berlin institute during Trendelenburg's serious illness and after his death.

In 1933, the Jewish pharmacologist Philipp Ellinger (1887–1952) was relieved of his post as professor at the Medical Academy in Düsseldorf and Krayer was appointed as his successor. Krayer initially refused orally. The new director of the Berlin Pharmacological Institute, Wolfgang Heubner, reported in his diary on June 14, 1933:

“[Krayer] came to me in person at noon to tell me that he had just presented his internal concerns to Ministerialrat Achelis about replacing a man who, in his opinion, had been dismissed from office for no good reason, whereupon he had dismissed him with the remark that he would then have to look for another one. Great!"

On June 15, 1933, Krayer justified his position vis-à-vis the Prussian Ministry for Science, Art and Public Education in unequivocal written form. The letter and the answer from the Ministry are reproduced by Udo Schagen and on the website of the Institute for Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Freiburg. Among other things, Krayer wrote (the original spelling in Schagen):

“Apart from unimportant factual considerations, the main reason for my hesitation was that I perceive the elimination of Jewish scholars as an injustice, the necessity of which I cannot see, since it seems to me that it is supported with reasons outside the sphere of science. This feeling of injustice is an ethical phenomenon. It is based on the structure of my personality and not an external construction. Under these circumstances, taking on a representation like the one in Düsseldorf would be a mental burden for me, which would make it difficult for me to take up my job as a teacher with the joy and devotion without which I cannot really teach. [...] I would rather forego attaining a position that corresponds to my inclinations and abilities than to decide against my convictions; or that by keeping silent in an incorrect place I encourage the formation of an opinion about myself that does not agree with the facts. "

The State Secretary in the Prussian Ministry of Culture, Wilhelm Stuckart , issued a university ban on Krayer in Germany, which included the use of public libraries. After a stay as a Rockefeller Fellow at the Department of Pharmacology of the University College London in 1934 he headed from 1934 to 1937, the Department of Pharmacology of the American University of Beirut ( Lebanon ), and subsequently to 1939 Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmacology of the Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts . Wolfgang Heubner reported on a meeting in England in his diary on July 4, 1935: “On the way, conversation with Krayer, who justified his refusal to return to Germany with the impossibility of taking the Hitler oath.” In 1938, Krayer received a call the Department of Pharmacology at Peking University . From 1939 to 1966 he headed the Department of Pharmacology at Harvard University.

From the United States, Krayer sharply contradicted National Socialist ideology a second time, this time independently of racism. At the annual meeting of the German Chemical Society in 1937, the President, Alfred Stock , described the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Carl von Ossietzky as a slap in the face for every German. It is understandable that both the government and the people are angry about it and want nothing more to do with the Nobel Prize. "The crime of the Norwegian Parliamentary Committee is deeply regretted on the part of academia." Krayer responded with a letter to the Society's office saying that he was forced to request that he be removed from the membership list because of this remark. He explained to Stock that he was convinced that it was not correct to claim that every German scientist felt offended by the award of the latest Nobel Prize. He doesn't know Ossietzky personally. But anyone who has followed his life with an open mind cannot deny the man's extraordinary personality, even as a political opponent. Although Ossietzky had to assume that he would not find justice with his political opponents, it was a vital necessity for him to reinforce his words with deeds. What better way to promote peace between nations than the deeds of men who are guided by a pure and profound responsibility for a higher humane order than that represented by the nation into which Stock and he ("we") were born ?

After the war, Krayer led a Medical Mission to Germany on behalf of the Unitarian Service Committee , the aim of which was to help rebuild teaching and research in medicine. The Medical Mission recommended, among other things, visits to German professors, younger scientists and medical students in the USA, visits to German architects to learn about patterns for the reconstruction of war-torn laboratories, material support and the creation of a German Research Council . Krayer wrote in his report (from the English): “Hardly anything is to be seen of a 'lost' generation, raised under Hitler and allegedly hopelessly poisoned by Nazi propaganda. On the contrary, many of these young people from their first university semesters became suspicious of the Nazi doctrine for a long time before its deceptive and fateful nature began to dawn on their elders. If you find openness, encouragement and wise leadership at home and abroad, then these young men and women will be the best guarantee for your 'better' Germany. "

Krayer spent the summer months of 1972 to 1980 as a visiting professor at the Pharmacological Institute of the Technical University of Munich , which was headed by Melchior Reiter (1919-2007), who had spent several study visits with Krayer in Boston. During this time Krayer was working on a story from the “Boehm School of Pharmacology”, to which he counted himself: his teacher Paul Trendelenburg was a student of Walther Straub , who in turn was a student of Rudolf Boehm . Krayer died before the manuscript was completed, but Reiter published it with some additions.

research

Krayer's main area of ​​work was the pharmacology of the heart and blood circulation. For example, he has pharmacologically characterized the ingredients of Germers ( Veratrum ) such as Veratrin . In a famous work from his time in Berlin, he and Wilhelm Feldberg demonstrated that acetylcholine is the transmitter of the parasympathetic nervous system in mammals . In the year of publication, 1933, both scientists left Germany, Feldberg, who was a Jew, on July 7th, Otto Krayer on December 31st.

Honors

Of Krayer's numerous honors, his favorite was the honorary citizenship of his home town of Köndringen, which was granted in 1957. In 1949 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . The German Pharmacological Society awarded him their highest honor in 1964 with the Schmiedeberg plaque . In 1962 he was appointed a member of the Leopoldina and in 1964 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences .

In 1965 the Medical Academy in Düsseldorf offered him honorary citizenship. At first Krayer accepted with pleasure, but then formulated a rejection - several handwritten drafts have been preserved: “I have come to the conclusion that it is the right thing to refuse the honorary citizenship of the Medical Academy Düsseldorf. ... It is now clear to me that the ethical position I originally took in 1933 does not allow any kind of external recognition. ... I regret that it took so long to express my conviction so clearly. "

In 2001 the University of Freiburg named the building for the Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology and the Institute for Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry after him in honor of Krayer.

Udo Schagen writes: “As far as I know, no second case is known in which a non-Jewish, not politically active scientist, regardless of his own career and regardless of possible political persecution, took an equally clear and offensively presented position towards those in power. This is all the more important as it was Krayer's first appointment to a full professorship that, according to career conventions, could hardly be refused by scientists. "

Ullrich Trendelenburg , son of Paul Trendelenburg and Krayer's student and friend, closes the article through which Krayer's deed in 1933 through a reference in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on July 19, 1995 was first made known to a broad public: "Let us consider the atrocities of the 'Third Reich' so his deed should be a comfort to us. If we are looking for a role model for the younger generation, we will find it in Otto Krayer. May the memory of this one righteous not fade. "

literature

  • Ullrich Trendelenburg : Otto Krayer (October 22, 1899 to March 18, 1982) and the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” (April 1933). In: DGPT Mitteilungen. 16, 1995, pp. 33-34.
  • Klaus Starke : The History of the Pharmacological Institute of the University of Freiburg. 2nd Edition. Springer, Berlin, 2004 ( online , PDF; 1.52 MB)
  • Udo Schagen : Resistant behavior in the sea of ​​enthusiasm, opportunism and anti-Semitism. The pharmacologist Otto Krayer (1899–1982). In: Yearbook for University History . 10, 2007, pp. 223-247.
  • Sabine Schleiermacher, Udo Schagen (Hrsg.): The Charité in the Third Reich - On the servitude of medical science under National Socialism. Paderborn 2008, ISBN 3-506-76476-4 .
  • Avram Goldstein: Otto Krayer (October 22, 1899 - March 18, 1982). In: Biographical Memoirs. Volume 57. Washington 1987, pp. 150-155.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Krayer: The pharmacological properties of pure apocodeine . In: Naunyn-Schmiedebergs Archive for Pharmacology and Experimental Pathology . 111, 1926, pp. 60-67. doi : 10.1007 / BF01934860 .
  2. ↑ Life data, publications and academic family tree of Otto Krayer at academictree.org, accessed on February 24, 2018.
  3. ↑ Quoted in Schagen 2007, p. 231.
  4. ↑ see Schagen 2007, pp. 243–245.
  5. ↑ a b c Otto Krayer Documentation (PDF; 1.9 MB) on the occasion of the handover of the Otto Krayer House to the Albert Ludwig University on October 29, 2001 on the website of the Institute for Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology of the University of Freiburg, accessed on June 20, 2012.
  6. ^ Diary in the archive of the German Society for Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology in Mainz, transcribed by Erich Muscholl .
  7. ↑ see Schagen 2007, pp. 236–237.
  8. ↑ see Starke 2004, p. 88.
  9. ^ Otto Krayer: Rudolf Boehm and his school of pharmacology. Zuckerschwerdt, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-88603-635-9 .
  10. ^ Klaus Starke: A history of Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Archives of Pharmacology . In: Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Archives of Pharmacology . 358, 1968, pp. 1-109, here pp. 50-52. doi : 10.1007 / PL00005229 .
  11. ^ Wilhelm Feldberg and Otto Krayer: The appearance of an acetylcholine-like substance in the cardiac vein blood of warm-blooded animals when the nervi vagi are irritated . In: Naunyn-Schmiedebergs Archive for Pharmacology and Experimental Pathology . 172, 1968, pp. 170-193. doi : 10.1007 / BF01860490 .
  12. ↑ see Schagen 2007, p. 238.
  13. ↑ see Schagen 2007, p. 223
  14. ↑ Udo Schagen, Sabine Schleiermacher: Under the swastika. In: Johanna Bleker, Volker Hess (ed.): The Charité. Story (s) of a hospital. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2010, pp. 169–187, here: p. 183.
  15. ↑ see Trendelenburg 1995, p. 34.

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Krayer, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Krayer, Otto Hermann (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pharmacologist and toxicologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Koendringen
DATE OF DEATH March 18, 1982
Place of death Tucson , Arizona